Holidays with the Avengers
by macy-terreth
Summary: A look on how all holidays go in the Stark Tower now with all the Avengers living together. Post-Avengers movie, and the sort-of sequel to my original story the Birdy and the Spider. Clintasha and Pepperony, with BrucexBetty, ThorxJane, and mentions of StevexPeggy. Loki shows up occasionally-he's not that bad of a guy, actually.
1. Chapter 1

**Wow, so after my Birdy and the Spider fanfic ended, here I am now with another one. Kind of...**

**But I'm having a hard time juggling the ask Avengers thing too, so I promise I will make a new fanfic ASAP.**

**:) Disclaimer: Roses are red, here's something new, violets are violet, not fricking blue! Oh yeah, and I don't own Marvel.**

**Fe equals Ferrum, which equals Iron, so technically... I forgot what I was going to say. **

**Tony: Hurrah, I make more appearences in this. About time I got some well-deserved recognition.**

**Clint: Are you kidding me? This is a ****_shared_**** fanfic.**

**Tony: Fine. Clint and Natasha sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.**

**Clint: G-O-T-O-H-E-L-L.**

**Tony: W-H-Y-D-O-N-T-Y-O-U?**

**Clint: C-A-U-S-E-I-A-M-N-O-T-D-U-M-B.**

**Tony: Are too!**

**Clint: Am not!**

**Tony: Are too too too!**

**Clint: Am not not not not not!**

**Tony: Are too too too too too too!**

**Clint: HAH, YOU SOUND LIKE A TRAIN!**

**Review!**

* * *

An Avengers Christmas

"Pepper! I can't find my cufflinks-you know, the organizing technology ones I designed myself?"

Nothing answered Tony Stark, and he crossed his arms, glancing around his empty room. Sunlight was filtered through his light curtains, mixing the beautiful yellow with the light blue glowing from the hole cut in his t-shirt.

"Pepper?" He called, quieter this time, as if she was in the bathroom.

Still nothing answered him. "Ms. Potts, where are you?" Tony shuffled over to the bathroom and looked inside, but there was no sign of his organized red-headed girlfriend. "Pepper?"

"In the office," He heard her reasurring voice and relaxed. Scooping up the parcel on his desk with one hand, he made his way to her clean and neat white office, and sat down in the swivel chair in front of her.

She raised her eyebrow lethargically at him, but made no move to usher him out of the room. Pepper shuffled through her papers and placed them in one neat pile at the corner of her big desk.

"Can I help you, Mr. Stark?" She asked professionally, clasping her hands together on the desk.

Tony took her hands and put on his best poker face. "You know I hate it when you call me that."

Pepper rolled her eyes in the direction of the door, and then repeated, "Can I help you?"

"Yes," Tony picked the parcel off of the floor and dropped it onto her desk with a satisfying thud. "It's Christmas, CEO Potts!" He grinned and pushed the parcel slightly closer to her face.

She was tired and bags sunk into her eyes. Her bun was not as neat as it usually was, and she looked anything but like she was enjoying his company.

"Thank you." She managed and picked the parcel off her desk, pushing it underneath it, hiding it from both their views.

Tony's smile melted. "Well, it's Christmas Eve _tomorrow_ actually, but it's still festive!"

"Sure." Pepper had already turned back to her computer and was typing something down. Without looking up, she added, "Now if you don't mind, I need you to leave."

He forced the most hurt face on, and whimpered, "If it pleases you." And he started trudging slowly out of the room, shoulders down and hunching over.

He heard her sigh, and then Pepper called to him, "Fine. Tony, what do you want?"

The alter-ego of Iron Man quickly whirled around and ran back to her desk, smile back on his face. "Oh good, I thought you were actually going to make me leave."

Pepper rubbed her temples tiredly. "Just tell me what you want."

"Okay, so we have that charity party tomorrow night, and I still need to get the Christmas tree, the gifts for the Avengers, and-"

His assistant quickly held out a palm and looked up, eyes narrowing in confusion. Pepper lowered her voice dramatically. "Tony, what party?" She started leafing through her organizer. As she reached December 24th, her eyes went hollow. "Tony, why would you add that and not tell me!" Pepper jabbed at the little note that was clearly written in Tony's handwriting, reading _Charity party, presents for the Avengers (yes, even Legolas)_

"Uh... Captain Hook is sending the Christmas cards?" Tony tried to cover up his mistake, because if there was anything he was scared of-and he was not scared of anything-it would be Pepper when she was mad at him.

Pepper placed her head in her hands and sighed frustratedly. "So you knew about this a long time ago but you just decided to tell me now so we could rush everything?"

"... I guess?"

"Okay. I guess tomorrow we can buy all _your_ stuff for _your_ party." She indicated towards the door and made Tony leave.

Despite her forcing him out of the room, Tony felt like he had just won this raging battle, but the aftermath had just begun.

He slept blissfully that night, and Pepper wished she could do the same. She sat up all night, trying to space out her schedule so she would be able to do all this stuff that Tony had not told her about.

She just hoped her schedule wouldn't collapse.

* * *

Sweat brimmed on his arms and his forehead. He thrashed wildly and screamed, watching the blood pool on the floor.

_Nat..._

_NAT!_

"Nat!" Clint jerked up, the blanket falling off of him.

Natasha sat up beside him quickly, and faced him. "I'm here, I'm here," She comforted, and they both lay back down.

Clint shuddered uncomfortably and stared up at the ceiling. He was panting, but she was here, she wasn't lying on the floor like in his nightmare.

His girlfriend gently kissed his cheek and got out of bed, glancing at the clock. "Come on," she urged, "It's late. We should get out of bed."

"Nat... What day is it?" He winced as she pulled open the curtains and bright light pooled into the room. Clint had a feeling that it was a special day today, not just your run of the mill Sunday.

"Christmas Eve," she answered without looking away from the window. Her oversized t-shirt hung down to her thighs and she smoothed down her messy red hair, the white light making her porcelain face more pale than usual.

Clint swore mentally. He had put it in the back of his mind to get her a present by today, but it totally slipped his mind. Christmas was not a time of rest and festivities for the Avengers, contrary to popular belief, because a lot of people who were bored decided to rob banks or kill people, because it was _Christmas._

Despite her puffy eyes from sleep and her bruises that peppered her legs and arms, Natasha was still the most beautiful woman Clint had ever laid his eyes on. He slipped out of bed and joined her at the window, one arm around her and they gazed out the window together, enjoying the view from Stark Tower of New York.

He kissed her hair, and left the window, pulling his t-shirt on. "Hang on, the charity thing that Stark organized is today, right?"

"Yup." Natasha turned to look at him. "You know, I never really celebrated Christmas before."

"Really?" He was astonished, he used to but it was hard to remember. All he could remember was once he got a toy car and his ass of a brother smashed it. "That stinks!"

"Well I didn't know what I was missing out on," she informed him, "So I didn't really suffer."

Clint made an O with his lips and threw one of her blouses and her pants over to her. "Come on then, we have to get presents for the others." _And for her_, he thought as she walked out of the windows' view to change.

Natasha sighed, and ruffled his hair gently like a mother. "I'll take your word for it," she answered, "Presents make it an awesome holiday."

* * *

Bruce and Steve had been engaging in a long educated conversation.

From Clint's point of view, educated meant boring.

Natasha and him joined Pepper, Tony, Steve, Bruce and Thor in the kitchen, and both sat down at the table beside each other.

"Merry Christmas Eve," Clint chided lightly, trying to sound extremely at ease and joyful. He was wrung out about not getting a present for Natasha, but he couldn't let her know.

"I wish you the most happiest and most joyful day of the celebration of the eve of Christmas!" Thor added joyfully, and continued drinking from his mug.

Clint turned to Tony, who was grinning slyly from behind the counter. _That's not coffee, is it?_ He mouthed and jerked his head towards Thor.

Tony shook his head and pointed to the can of cocoa mix on the counter, allowing Clint to relax his tense shoulders.

"Happy Christmas Eve!" Pepper added wistfully, as if she too were hung up about something to be extremely joyful. She put bacon on a plate and handed it to Clint, who accepted it eagerly.

"Wow," Steve chimed in, "Christmas hasn't developed much. So what did you guys get for each other?" He asked curiously, rubbing his hands together.

"I..." Tony licked his lips quickly and turned back to his plate of food. "Not telling."

Steve put a fake frown on his face but waited patiently for his own plate of food. "Thank you very much."

As everyone recieved their food and dug into the delicious meal Pepper had cooked for them, they started running over the plans each of them had for today.

"Okay, so Tony and I have to get the Christmas tree and the decorations up, we have to get the whole charity ball that we're hosting here organized, so basically we won't be here for the majority of the day, but I'd like it if everybody arrived here at a certain time so we could decorate the tree and get prepared for the ball." Pepper shuffled her messy organizer and ran her fingers through her hair. "Okay?"

Everyone nodded and started stating their plans, slow enough so Pepper could scrawl down some stuff, but fast enough so that by the time they finished, they would actually be able to do what they had set their minds to.

Clint was first on informing Pepper. "Okay, so Nat and I are heading out to do some shopping, so I guess we can be here back on time."

"Could you pick up some Christmas-y food?" Pepper asked, and Clint shrugged in agreement. "Great, thanks."

Bruce was next, and he had simple plans. "I was thinking about picking up some Christmas decorations; poinsettia, holly, mistletoe, garlands, wreaths, etc." No one knew what to think about the scientist who could turn into a green rage monster picking up decorations for Christmas, so no one dared to question it.

"Great, so we got decorations and food covered." Pepper crossed something off of her organizer. "Now, Steve and Thor, what do you think you guys are going to be doing?"

"I'll take Steve and Thor," Bruce added hastily, seeing as the two other couples probably wanted to be alone, "I mean, Steve can tell me what they used to do for Christmas and we can help Thor celebrate it."

Everyone accepted these plans and with that, each headed off in a different direction.

This was going to be a Christmas to remember.

* * *

**If you guys didn't like it, I'll start a new one. I've got a lot of ideas. :)**

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**More by request. :) **

**I thank you guys.**

**Please review.**

**MARCH BREAK WHEE**

* * *

"Fake tree or real tree?" Pepper asked, scrolling through her BlackBerry.

Tony leaned into the soft leather seat of his limo and answered curtly, "I like real ones."

"I just thought you'd like fake ones," She answered, as if he was annoyed with her, "Less hassle. And cheaper."

His tone changed dramatically. "How can you say cheap ones are better?"

"I never said that!" Pepper snapped, a thin scowl on her lips.

"You were implying it," Tony shrugged and she rolled her eyes at him, returning to her phone. "Fake ones stink."

"I was just stating my opinion. I happened to own a fake one back before I moved in with you, and it was just fine."

Tony didn't reply to this, until she added, "And for your information, fake ones do not smell. Real ones do."

"But they smell good; they smell like pine!"

"Fine! We'll get a real one for you!"

Tony smiled crookedly, knowing that he'd won. Happy dropped them off at the parking lot filled with spruce and pine trees, and the two exited from the limo.

"Hey, what about this one?" Pepper held up a small branch of a tiny pine tree and smiled at Tony.

Tony shoved his hands in his black jacket and fixed his sunglasses. "Nah, too small."

She rolled her eyes impatiently and put her gloved hands on her white jacket's hips. "You're kidding me, right?"

"My house is huge," he said it as if he was informing her on something new, "I'll need a tree that at least reaches the ceiling." Tony glanced around the tree lot, until his eyes zoned in on something. "Now_ there's_ a tree."

The alter-ego of Iron Man practically waltzed over to the big tree in the corner, and held out his hands, showing the tree to Pepper as if it were a car and he was a cheap salesman. Pepper surveyed the tree from top to bottom.

"The thing's practically dying, Tony, let's just get another one." Pepper crossed her arms. The tree's tips were yellowing and it had been abandoned, but Tony wasn't about to give up.

"No no," he insisted, gesturing her to go get the man selling the trees, "It's fine. We're buying this one."

She rolled her eyes, and went to go find the tree salesperson. Tony scrolled through his phone slowly, reading over all the latest news while he waited for Pepper. He checked his texts, and found exactly what he was waiting for.

He quickly mashed back a reply to the sender, and continued waiting for his girlfriend to return.

* * *

Clint hated Christmas music.

Right now, carolers were belting out carols as loud as they could to any passerby. And Clint was going to have to pass by.

He thought all Christmas songs didn't make any sense, which is probably reasonable because most of them don't.

A reindeer with a red nose? He's sick, not magical! Get him to a vet!

Grandma got run over by a reindeer? No explanation needed.

Let it snow, let it snow? Clint had a bad memory of being on a mission and being snowed in and then having to force his way through the snow mountain which was taller than him.

He took Natasha's arm and gently led her away from that street, nearly careening into another person. After a muttered sorry, Natasha stared blankly at him.

"Where are we going?" She asked, yanking Clint back to the original street.

He pulled her back, stating, "Carolers; 12 o'clock."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "You're kidding me. You're afraid of carolers."

"FYI, they go to your house and don't leave until you give them something."

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." She repeated and yanked him back to the original street they were walking on, Clint digging his heels into the ground trying to slow her down to no avail.

The carolers saw the two assassins approaching and chose to break out in a loud version Baby It's Cold Outside, which made Clint struggle against Natasha's firm grip more.

Clint was too busy struggling against Natasha's grip that long after they passed the carolers, so his eyes were still shut and he didn't realize that until Natasha released his arm. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Uh..." Clint scratched his neck sheepishly, and looked away to avoid her gaze. When he turned his eyes back to her, he did a double-take and looked back to the spot he was staring at earlier. "Ooh, a store! Let's pick up some presents for the Avengers!"

Then he pulled her very quickly over to the store, and they entered, trying to act casual.

Despite their trying hard to stay unrecognized by wearing sunglasses and Natasha wearing a hat covering her hair with Clint having his hood pulled up, it wasn't long before they were _mobbed_ by people asking to take pictures and paparazzi begging for information. They did pose for some pictures, causing the non-paparazzi to die down, but the paparazzi asked for more and wouldn't leave them alone.

Forcing themselves to ignore the paparazzi, Clint and Natasha started to scout for presents, and luckily security arrived soon enough to push the paparazzi mounding them away. They continued searching for the perfect gifts.

"So what are we supposed to get for the most obnoxious guy who practically has everything?" Natasha asked Clint, looking down the aisles and aisles of potential Christmas.

Clint shrugged and plucked a plunger off one of the shelves. "How about this? So we can clean out his mouth."

"Or this," Natasha held up a leash. "So Pepper can make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

The two exchanged small smiles, but put the items back where they came from. They continued looking for gifts, and Clint was secretly trying to pick out something perfect for Natasha.

_What would someone like Natasha want?_ He asked himself, _something practical? Or maybe..._

He paused at where he saw a mannequin with a beautiful white summer dress on it. Clint stared at it for a long time, imagining Natasha's porcelain skin matching with the white dress and her red hair flowing over her shoulders. He shook himself out of it, but didn't buy the dress.

She would probably kill him if he did.

Clint continued looking for perfect gifts, and at the end of the day, he'd gotten gifts for Bruce, Thor, Steve, Pepper, Maria and even one for Fury, but remained giftless for Natasha and Tony.

Natasha, however, had managed to find gifts for everyone, despite this being her first real celebratory Christmas.

Clint accused her of having celebrated this holiday before, therefore she knew exactly what to buy, and Natasha accused him of forgetting to buy something for her.

This, he denied, stating that he wasn't sure what to buy for her.

She didn't believe him.

* * *

"So, these birds, you consume them?"

Bruce was getting tired.

And it had only been five minutes in that store.

He was juggling between telling Steve what most of the new traditions of today were, and what you could eat and what you could not eat on Christmas to Thor.

So far, Thor was having trouble understanding why they ate chickens and not pigeons, because while there was an abundance of free pigeons, they paid for chickens.

It wasn't long before after Bruce ran out of sufficient reasons to give Thor that he too started to believe that humans should eat pigeons.

"Yes, we eat chickens because pigeons eat trash and gross stuff so they're not as healthy and, pigeons can fly so they're harder to catch." Bruce replied.

_And I wasn't even supposed to be buying food, Clint was..._ He was peeved that he had even brought them in here.

"But, Man of Iron can fly! Why not just ask him to catch us a large abundance of these pigeons instead?" Thor asked again, prodding the frozen chicken with his finger.

Bruce groaned loudly. "You know what, let's just go get our decorations, okay?"

"Of course, I would enjoy the buying of the Christmas items to complete our decor!"

The alter-ego of Hulk sighed loudly.

"Hang on," Steve called, "Why is there a can with my face on it?"

Bruce took a gander at the can of Dr. Pepper brandished with a photo of Captain America on it.

"Honestly, I have no idea." And with that, he pulled the two modern-Christmas oblivious heroes out of the grocery store.

* * *

**Dropping by Toronto on March 8th and March 9th?**

**Go to Comic-Con at the MCC. I'll be there! :) Maybe we'll meet. **

**Just go up to the girl with glasses, a big smile on her face, without a costume, looking for Iron Man or something, and ask them "Are you Macy-Terreth?"**

**And then I might say yes. And I'll buy you coffee.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey people! This is one of those longer chapters. :) Sorry I don't upload more often. I have to enjoy my March Break peeps, geez.**

**Please leave reviews! PLEASE!**

**Tony: Wow, desperate much?**

**Clint: I know, right? Desperate...**

**Natasha: Um... You may want to see this picture Tony...**

**Clint: LEMME SEE? *looks at the photo.* AHAHAHAHA!**

**Tony: What? WHAT?**

**Steve: *looks over his shoulder and stifles a laugh.* I have to admit, that is kind of funny...**

**Tony: LET. ME. SEE!**

**Remember, review. Please?**

* * *

Tony Stark can find an excuse to throw a party for anything. Whether it be a_ Yay Pepper's finished half her paperwork_ or a _Steve finally gets a reference #2_ party, he will find a way and a theme for that party.

So a _the charity party is finished everybody get down and shuffling_ party was no biggie for Anthony Edward Stark. He had arranged everything-everyone except for him, Bruce and Natasha wore their uniforms underneath their clothing and they agreed that as soon as the Charity ball was finished, they would rip off their suits and party until two in the morning.

In this case, agreed means they spent hours arguing over it. However, in the end, Tony ultimately won his case, and the after-charity party was organized.

Pepper and Tony were the first to arrive to the tower, with the tree. The alter-ego of Iron Man proved to be the genius he was, and rigged up a small tree stand that would water the tree when it needed it, and keep the pine needles from falling all over the place. The tree was propped upright, and everything was at a cruising speed, until Pepper slapped her forehead in realization.

"Crap, we didn't get the ornaments!" She started pacing around, but Tony wasn't in the room with her. "Tony, did you hear-" A wry smile sneaked on her face as she watched her boyfriend enter the room, two full cardboard boxes tucked underneath his arms.

"Family tradition," He explains as he puts them down and opens the dusty boxes, revealing many ornaments inside. "Each ornament has been added by another generation; layers and layers of history."

Pepper holds up a tiny plastic gingerbread man. "Do you know the story behind this one?"

"No idea," Tony said truthfully as he took it from her hand and placed it on one branch of the tree. "One down, a million more to go."

"What about... This one?" Pepper then brings up a small snow globe on a golden string, shaking the styrofoam snow around the little couple sitting on the bench, who seem oblivious to the snow around them.

"Ah, I think that might have been my dad's gift to my mom. Or some romantic crap like that," he waved it off, and pulled out a mini snowflake that lit up when he touched a button. "Now this, this is art."

"Where'd you get that?" Pepper carefully cradled the snowflake in her fingers, turning the small blinking wired ornament over to observe it, face clearly awe-stricken. "This is adorable!"

"I made it," he sounded very proud, with a hint of smug. "With my... Dad.." He trailed off, and Pepper quickly hung it up and took out another ornament.

"Hey, you kept it!"

"What?"

Tony looked up from the tree, which he was currently fixing the branches of, letting his eyes glide to Pepper, who was grinning and fingers were dangling an Iron Man ornament, which was wearing a hat. "You kept it," she repeated, slightly quieter this time.

"Yeah," he agreed as he watched her hang it up on the tree along with the others, "I took it as a compliment; that you really liked the Iron Man side to me."

She turned around, smiled and wrapped her arms around Tony, sharing a sweet embrace. He pulled her face forward and their lips met.

"Gah, get a _room_, you two."

Pepper's face burned red as she broke apart from Tony's face, but he wouldn't let her leave his arms.

Clint was standing there at the doorway, exaggeratedly sticking his tongue out in disgust. Natasha was rolling her eyes, but nobody knew who she was rolling them at-Clint or Pepper and Tony.

"Nobody needs Pepperony in the middle of the living room." Clint mutters, dropping the plastic bags on the couch. "Wait, that sounded really wrong."

Tony grinned like a fox, while Pepper pressed her lips together really tightly, forming them into one straight line.

"So are we hanging up ornaments or what?" Natasha asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room.

The four continued working in silence, stringing up small ornaments on different branches.

At last, a very tired Bruce, a very excited Thor and an extremely cheerful Steve arrived at the tower and they joined the cheerful-but silent Avengers, wrapping lights around and etc. Tony stood back and marveled their work. "Ah, now just for the finishing touch..." He dug into one of the boxes, digging around. "New generation of ornaments."

The alter-ego of Iron Man held up six perfect little ornaments, a small glass and red sand hourglass, a very delicate looking-glass version of Captain America's shield, one detailed bow with an arrow drawn inside it, a plastic figurine of Hulk, an exact miniature replica of Thor's hammer-minus the power, and a very beautifully made arc reactor ornament. "You guys like?"

"Wow," Steve took the small glass shield carefully in his hands. "I'm impressed, Tony, I am very impressed. Did you make these?"

Tony beamed, face lighting up at Pepper smiling at him. "Course I did, Capsicle. Where else would I get them?"

Pepper found herself smirking and marveling at the idea of a Tony sitting very patiently in one spot, patiently melting the colored sand and pouring it into the molds, and them letting the cool. She let out a small laugh as Natasha tried to hide the amazement on her face as well.

"Nice job Starky," the assassin punched him-hard-in the arm. "It looks good."

"And all we're missing now is the star for the top of the tree!" Clint pointed to the very tip of the pine tree, which turned out to be higher than any of them had anticipated. "And... How exactly are we planning on getting the star to the top of the tree?"

"Well Thor flying in the house is out," Tony starts, much to Thor's disagreement, "Getting Bruce to hulk-out is definitely a no. Hang on, I got it! Dummy!"

Clint had an idea, but no one seemed keen on listening. "You know I could just-"

"Shut it Cupid, no one cares." Tony's robot whirred into the room, obediently awaiting its master's instructions. "Okay Pepper, come here."

Pepper stood very still for a moment, almost as if she was frozen in time, signs of her breathing very small, and she only blinked once. "What are you going to make me do?"

"How much do you weigh, Pep? 126?" He seemed completely bent on figuring out a way to put the star on top, even though he basically implied he had already had an idea. "129? Something close to that?" Tony picked up the big star that was supposed to go up the tree.

She didn't answer, and her eyes flew from side to side as her mind reeled for any idea of what Tony had up his sleeve. "What-What are you thinking?"

"Here, just-Pepper don't give me that look-just come over here."

Pepper did not move from her spot, and blinked really quickly instead.

"Do you trust me?" He asked at last, and finally, she forced herself to nod and walk over to him. "So, I need you to sit on Dummy, he'll extend his arm up, and you just put the star on top. Simple."

She kept blinking at him.

"Okay, let's go!" Tony scooped her up bridal-style, oblivious to the Avengers watching them. He dropped her still screaming on Dummy's arm, and handed her the star. "Good luck my love," Tony kissed her forehead and gestured for Dummy to extend his arm.

Pepper tried to dig her nails into the metal, clutching on so tightly for her dear life. "Tony, I am going to kill you when I get down from here!"

"Love you too Ms. Potts!"

Dummy finally reached the top of the tree, and forcing herself to keep from whimpering, a very scared Pepper carefully set the star on top of the tree, hand visibly shaking. She very warily leaned forward, and tried to plug the star in without falling off the robot's arm.

Everything was dizzy to Pepper when she accidentally looked down. It was going to be a looong fall if she slipped off Dummy's arm.

Eventually, she reached the plug, stabbed it into the outlet, and miraculously, the tree lit up, a sight something short of magic. The whole room glowed with the beautiful light radiating off the tree, and everyone, even Pepper, who was still sitting on Dummy's arm grinned. "Now please get me down from here."

* * *

The night was beautiful. True, you could say that the weather conditions were horrible and vile, cold and unforgiving, but if you entered Stark Tower, it was as if outside was jut an illusion.

Everyone was dressed in very fancy clothing-women in blue or white dresses reflecting the snow, and men in black suits.

Natasha stood by herself near the punchbowl at the beginning of the party, when everyone was just being introduced. Men were too afraid to approach her, for fear that even though she was beautiful, she could kill them in one second. She wore a red sleeveless gown that had a slit up her right thigh, which only made her eyes pop out and allowed her to stand out more. Her hair was kept down, falling to her shoulders as she drank more punch. Natasha was a glowing beauty.

While Natasha stood out dramatically, Pepper stood out in a more, subtle, beautiful light. Her hair was in a braid wrapped up around her head, out of her face and eyes. Dressed in a ruffled, one-sleeve pink dress the hue of the sunset, Pepper welcomed all the guests to the charity ball, and smiled, feigning interest in some of the more boring conversations. Pepper drank champagne, but when the alcohol became too much, she faked sips. Her cheeks started to hurt from all the fake smiling.

The charity ball started off very lightly and quietly, very formal and to Clint, very boring. So he decided to kick things up a notch. The lights in the living room reflected off the white furniture, pale shades of blue, white and crystal, so Clint switched them to neon greens, neon blues and neon everything. He changed the music to more upbeat songs, grinning as he attached streamers to his arrows and sent them flying across the top of the room, landing and becoming stuck in the drywall as the streamers slowly started to flutter down behind them. When he felt at last he was finished, he smoothed down his crisp black suit, and went to go find Natasha.

Tony watched the lights change and the surprised looks on his guests start to flood the living room. He grinned, and tried to push his way through the crowd to find Pepper for a dance.

Bruce stood very awkwardly in the middle of the crowds, shaking hands and offering odd and shy smiles, and seemed more uncomfortable than enjoying the party. That is, until someone asked him about gamma radiation, and Bruce finally started to unwind. A small crowd had been attracted to him, asking more questions and listening intently. Every person who had asked him was a man, until out of nowhere, he heard a female voice in the very far back ask him, "Why _do you_ like gamma radiation?"

He was kind of taken aback by this. Most people just asked him about what this meant, or what it was, but very nearly had he heard this question.

"I... It's... It's a very long story, and I don't think any of you want to hear it now, do you?" He faked a small nervous chuckle, and all the other men chuckled with him.

Suddenly they parted, and there was a beautiful girl standing at the end of the parted men. She was in a sleeveless dress that reached to her knees. It was a very pale blue at the top and faded into a very dark navy blue at the bottom. Her long brown hair was parted to one side, and her stockings were the same dark blue. She gave him a small smile as Bruce gaped at her, mouth slightly open like a fish.

"I would," she whispered at last, and Bruce had to blink several times. "I would like to hear about it."

He gave a sigh of surprise almost, and walked between the two rows of men to the girl and enveloped her in a hug which she gracefully accepted. "Betty..." Bruce whispered hazily into her hair. He felt her smile into his chest.

Tony stood behind her, pressing his lips together tightly. Pepper still hadn't noticed him, she was too focused in pretending she had any idea what the Mr. Johnson was going on and on about. "Are you busy, Ms. Potts?" He asked her quite incredulously, and if it weren't for Pepper's heels keeping her grounded, she would have leaped at Tony's warm breath suddenly on her neck.

She spun around. "What?" She nipped, as Mr. Johnson waited patiently for their conversation to continue. "Not enough food on the dessert table?" Pepper pointed to the flaunted dessert table, filled with orange slices arranged in the Eiffel tower, a cake in the shape of a bio-sphere that had already been cut into, cookies in every shape imaginable, a chocolate water wheel scooping up more chocolate, an ice sculpture in the shape of Stark Tower-which ingeniously melted slowly so that the layers of candies inside started to peek through, hot chocolate being served with edible peppermint spoons, sparkling Christmas punch, and the main attraction that Pepper and Clint mostly, along with the other Avengers had made, the cupcake tray which was in the shape of the Christmas tree, filled with quickly disappearing cupcakes.

"It's not that," Tony says, looking at the clock idly. "It's that it's almost 10 and we haven't even danced yet."

Pepper stared at the clock, a bored frown on her face. She gave an annoyed sigh while rolling her eyes. "Tony, it's 9:47."

The alter-ego of Iron Man paused, for dramatic effect almost. "Whatever, close enough, alright, Mr... Johnny, thanks for chatting with her, 'kay, toodles!" And with that, he pulled his girlfriend into the midst of the crowd, leaving short and stumpy Mr. Johnson scratching his head.

"Did you just say _'toodles'_?" Pepper sounded slightly more relaxed and amused now, as Tony rested a hand on her hip and one on her shoulder. He smiled, and she tried to force her lips closed, but a smile found its place on her face.

"Maybe," he said, hand reaching over to pull her braid loose. "And did I mention you're truly _glowing_, my dear Pepper?" Finally, Tony gave one last tug, and the braid broke loose, allowing Pepper's now curly strawberry blond hair to fall and tumble-down her shoulders. "Truly, beautifully and wonderfully glowing."

They slowly danced, Pepper now allowing the smile to become a glowing white grin.

"Ahem."

Natasha turned around from her viewing of Tony and Pepper to see Clint step out of the shadows.

"How can you watch them?" Clint asked obnoxiously, crossing his arms over his chest. "I mean, like seriously, I thought you hated romance and stuff like that."

She ignored him, rolling her eyes and sipping the pink punch.

"Would you like it better if you got to experience it first hand instead of just watching them?" He asked at last.

"Was that what you were building up for?" Natasha asked, tone impatient. "I waited for so long just for you to ask me to dance? So not worth it."

Clint's face went blank.

"But yes." Despite this, Clint seemed hesitant to take her hand. "What're you waiting for, Legolas? If you don't hurry, I might change my mind."

She held out her hand, and with a flourished grin, Clint eagerly grabbed it and yanked her into the crowd as Natasha very hastily put down her still full glass. He stared into her green eyes as she stared into his blue ones.

_Her eyes are so bright._

Meanwhile, across the dance floor, hidden away in a corner, were Thor and Jane making out underneath mistletoe. Eugh, no need to linger on what was happening there.

However, no one seemed to notice Steve missing.

Except for Maria.

She walked up behind Pepper, unafraid to interrupt her moment with Tony. As soon as Tony saw her approaching, he pulled Pepper closer to his chest, and stared straight-wide eyed at Maria.

She mouthed, _where's Steve?_

He mouthed back a silent, _Capsicle? Not sure._

Maria sighed and rolled her eyes. _Have you seen him at all?_

Tony bit his lip as Pepper started squirming, her face being pressed to uncomfortably into his arc reactor. He released slightly, but kept her face in his chest gently. _Haven't seen him since the start of the party._

Finally Maria nodded, and mouthed a thank you before turning to find Steve elsewhere.

Maria smoothed down her long flowing strapless gown-that Fury and Tony both asked her to wear and she had agreed since it was for charity-and went to Steve's room, the one place she hadn't looked for him yet.

The soft echoes and piano sounds of _Stay_ by Rihanna started playing as Maria knocked on Steve's door. "Steve? Are you in there?"

There was no response. "Hello? Steve, it's Maria."

"He's not there."

Maria, using her momentum of spinning around, punched whoever said that and whoever was standing behind her to the ground. Clint sat there, rubbing his noise. "Ow."

"Oh, sorry." She reached down, and helped him up off the ground. "Do you know where he is?"

"Yeah," Clint mutters, voice weird as he pinches his nose. "He left at around eight, storming out the tower."

With that, Maria left Clint alone, rubbing his nose in the hallway. The SHIELD agent grabbed her coat off the coat hanger and rode the elevator down, running through the lobby, still in that ridiculous long white dress and still in high heels.

Steve stared out at the river in front of him. The bridge he was standing on faced the wind and the snow was blowing in his face, making him squint against the blurring frigid hail. He hated the cold, but it was better than just sitting in there.

He heard someone come up to him, and he saw a woman with long brown hair whipping against her face and her dress billowing beside her. "Steve!" She called, and for a second, he lost sense of what just happened.

"Peggy?" Steve ran towards her, but as he got closer, his vision cleared, and saw that it was only Maria. "Oh. Agent Hill."

"It's just Maria," she replied, pulling the collar off her jacket higher to cover her ears. "So what are you doing out here in this miserable weather?"

"I..." He trailed off, and instead gently took Maria by her back and started to lead her down the bridge back to Tower. "I don't want to talk about it."

Maria stopped in mid-step, and turned back to him. "Oh." She said flatly, as if she was upset but she understood. "It's Sunday, and that's why you left at eight, like the day you were supposed to go on that date, wasn't it?"

Steve stayed very silent and stood absolutely still, face trying to mask his sudden painful wince. "Yes and no," he answered bitterly, facing away from her gaze. "Because if it were just that it was Sunday and it was eight o'clock, then I would leave every weekend."

"So... Why did you just storm out?"

The two continued walking again, and Steve let out a painful, very small sigh. "It's that everyone was dancing, and it's just... Very..."

"Painful?" She suggested, sticking her frozen hands in her pockets. Steve nodded grimly, sniffling. "I'm sorry," Maria whispered, "I didn't want to bring it up to hurt you, I was just..."

Without meaning, Steve inhaled and held up a hand, stopping Maria. Afterwards, the two continued their walk back to the tower in silence.

* * *

**Thor: I FIND THIS MOST AMUSING. AHA. AHA. HAHA.**

**Darcy: Ain't that true. *smiles.***

**Tony: Let me see! *grabs it.***

**The photo is a depiction of Tony's face with the words on top "Hey I just banged you, and this is crazy," and at the bottom reads, "Delete my number, but keep the baby." **

**Pepper: *walks by and looks over his shoulder at the photo.* That's cute.**

**Tony: Not. Funny.**

**PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! :) :) **


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